🔗 Share this article Can You Crack This? That Overlooked Netherlands Creation That Forged our Contemporary World There are many candidates to claim the title of “planet’s greatest innovation.” The wheel. The movable type. The steam engine. As per a recent publication, though, that title belongs to the automated timber mill conceived by Dutchman Cornelis Corneliszoon during 1593. “Before mechanised sawing, constructing a modest trading ship required approximately ten lumberjacks working over three months,” notes the author. “With wind-driven lumber mills, the same quantity of processed timber could be manufactured within a week.” Owing to this rapid mechanical saw, that converted logs to planks using almost no manual labor, Dutch builders could construct vessels more quickly compared to any other nation, an advantage that sparked a century of Netherlands maritime, economic as well as artistic supremacy across Europe and the world. The First Genuine Industrial Machine Corneliszoon’s sawmill, contends the writer, represented “humanity’s first true industrial machine.” A wind turbine rotated a gear. One component converted its rotary motion to up-and-down action for the cutting blade. Another component changed the rotary motion into a sideway’s movement feeding the log to the cutter. A ratchet system moved the log ahead one precise increment per stroke. “Every component was modest by itself. The Dutchman’s genius was to integrate them so they operated in a precisely synchronized sequence, cutting with each downward motion and moving with each return stroke. It was a remarkably intelligent application of basic components.” A fact that leads us to today’s challenge. The task is you to reinvent one of the fundamental concepts behind this historic machine. Circular to Vertical Construct a machine that turns circular movement into up-and-down action. Your available these items exclusively: A rotating disc. Two pegs. Two bars. A “sleeve”, which is a tube or housing into which a single the rods will fit snugly. (Consider that you can put things on a base, so the components don’t fall down.) The solution returns later today UK with the solution. In the interim, PLEASE NO HINTS. Rather, feel free to suggest (less celebrated) candidates as the world’s greatest invention.